Ready for Big Kid Pants? - Day 684

Well, I haven't written in a while. This was partly due to my vacation to California to meet up with an old Army buddy, but it was probably more a reflection of just being busy. As Anna grows up and demands more interactive time (read: fun-filled days and discipline), I have less time to tap away on the computer. It is hard to remember the days when she would sit still on a little patch of floor for an hour.

Anyhow, there have been some notable events. Anna has started to potty train, though we aren't pushing it much at all. Every now and then we ask her if she wants to sit on the toilet when we go to the bathroom and she often wants to. But there is one catch, Anna demands that we take off all of her clothes before she sits on the toilet. So it takes a little prep time and she usually ends up walking around without clothes on for a while. I guess we will have to teach her to dress and undress now too. Once in a while she will go potty, and other times she will just sit there and chat. It's nice either way. Unfortunately, she has also become aware of the toilet, which means that any number of things get thrown in there during a week. She's pretty quick.

Anna lost one of her Nya-Nyas a while back so we had to replace it. Of course, we thought she might reject the new one, but instead just calls it "New Other Nya-Nya" and loves it just the same -- only it is much cleaner. For a while it was called "clean other Nya-Nya." She still has her favorite Nya-Nya.

We have also started looking at toddler beds for Anna. She can now put her leg over the edge and it will only be a matter of time before she learns how to break out of her bed. Just this week she has also started to climb into her high-chair by herself, so the climbing has begun. On the positive side, she is pretty skilled at climbing steps now, so we don't have to worry so much about her falling -- though this will probably mean she will take a tumble or two as we get more relaxed about it.

Anna's music classes are now done, but we have signed up for a class starting in early July called Kindermusic Zoo-Train. Imagine two of Anna's favorite things in a music class. How fun. I bought Anna a xylophone to keep her music up during the break from class and she really likes it. She also loves to recite the alphabet while banging on bars.

The terrible twos -- as they call it -- have most likely begun. Anna has learned the power of a toddler meltdown and the limp-body defense to prevent you from picking her up. When this happens, she can be quite a handful. It is kind of like pushing a rope. Regardless, we are getting pretty good at extracting her from the meltdown zone and calming her, and she is responding really well to whatever corrective action we dole out. All in all, it hasn't been too bad -- at least so far.

We have been taking Anna to the National Building Museum a lot lately. The Building Zone area at the museum with all sorts of blocks, legos, and building toys will be closing in July. It will reopen later and likely be expanded significantly, but this may be after we leave. I can't imagine how I am going to explain this to her.

Anna has also become quite the drawer. Sure, all the drawings look the same, but she is very convincing when she titles her drawings. Usually, after a series of slash and jerk motions with a crayon she will say, "That is an octopus," or "That is a bird." She will go on and on with dozens of subjects. I was particularly impressed with "That is a monkey wearing a bow." She actually had two parts to the drawing, and one part looked like half a boy (good girl). My favorite, though, was when she would draw a squiggle with a blue crayon and say, "That is a yellow car." Then she would use the same blue crayon and scribble again and say, "That is a red car." Every now and then I would ask her what a certain squiggle was and she would study it a few seconds by putting her face about 3 inches away and confidently proclaim, "That is a [such and such]."

I'll end this entry with just a few Anna sayings:

When asked, "How old are you?" Anna replies, "Twenty-five pounds."

When I turn on the TV, Anna says, "Daddy watching David Letterman."

When it thunders out she says, "There is thunder on the back porch."

When I take a picture she says, "Daddy taking pictures like Gampa." (Gampa took in excess of 1,000 photos while visiting in May/June.)